Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange, is facing the prospect of being jailed until his fraud trial in October. Prosecutors have argued that Bankman-Fried should be detained due to concerns that he may intimidate witnesses and influence their testimony. Bankman-Fried, who was once a billionaire, has been under house arrest at his parents’ home in Palo Alto, California, since his extradition from the Bahamas in December 2022. The issue of his bail has come into question after the New York Times published an article on July 20 containing excerpts from personal Google documents belonging to his former partner, Caroline Ellison, prior to the collapse of FTX. Bankman-Fried admitted to sharing these documents with a reporter from the Times. The US Attorney’s office in Manhattan stated that this crossed the line, alleging that Bankman-Fried’s actions amount to witness tampering. In a letter to US District Judge Lewis Kaplan, prosecutors emphasized that while Bankman-Fried has the right to speak and defend himself to the press, he cannot corruptly influence witnesses or interfere with a fair trial through attempted public harassment and shaming. Bankman-Fried’s spokesperson declined to comment, and his lawyers have until August 1 to respond to the government’s letter. Bankman-Fried has pleaded not guilty to allegations of embezzling billions of dollars in FTX customer funds to cover losses at his Alameda Research hedge fund, where Ellison served as CEO. Prosecutors made a surprise request to detain Bankman-Fried ahead of his trial during a hearing on Wednesday, where his discussions about the case were restricted by Judge Kaplan. Bankman-Fried’s lawyer argued at the hearing that his communications with journalists were meant to protect his reputation. Prosecutors had previously accused Bankman-Fried of attempting to influence the testimony of an FTX lawyer. In statements referenced by the Times, Ellison expressed her dissatisfaction and feeling overwhelmed with her job, as well as emotional distress resulting from her breakup with Bankman-Fried. Ellison has pleaded guilty to fraud charges and is expected to testify against him in court. Furthermore, Bankman-Fried shared the aforementioned personal Google documents with the New York Times. Former FTX executives Gary Wang and Nishad Singh have also pleaded guilty in relation to the collapse of FTX and have agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.
Denial of responsibility! VigourTimes is an automatic aggregator of Global media. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All trademarks belong to their rightful owners, and all materials to their authors. For any complaint, please reach us at – [email protected]. We will take necessary action within 24 hours.
